AUSTIN, TX - Puerto Rican vocalist/songwriter LOURDES PEREZ is heading up 2 human rights delegations to Vieques, Puerto Rico - the tiny island home of 10,000 people and a fragile ecosystem - the epicenter of a massive campaign of peaceful civil disobedience to end U.S. Navy occupation, bombing and weapons experimentation there. The U.S. colonized Puerto Rico in 1898 and appropriated 2/3 of the land of Vieques for use as a military base over 60 years ago. The death of civilian David Sanes Rodriguez in May 1999 by a stray bomb was the "last straw" in a long history of destruction and abuse, giving rise to an unprecedented unity among Puerto Ricans across the islands and abroad in their demand that Clinton issue an executive order removing the U.S. Navy from Vieques immediately. Thousands of demands for the complete removal of the military from the devastated island have come in from the Dalai Lama, Jesse Jackson and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu as well as medical, religious and veterans groups.

NOVEMBER 25 - 29
A diverse group of Austin and San Antonio based artists will be sent by OCTAAV (Organization of Concerned Texas Artists and Activists for Vieques) to join Perez for the first delegation: